NS4301Political Economy of Africa

Summer Term 2015

Introduction

Critical Questions I

The class will address a number of key questions involving the economies of Africa:•What is the meaning of economic development and economic growth – how do these two concepts differ?•How have the African economies performed economically in the last several decades?•What are economic institutions, and how do they shape the prospects for successful development?•What are the sources of national economic growth? Who benefits from such growth and why? •Why do some countries make rapid progress toward development while many others remain poor?•What are the most influential theories of development, and are they compatible? Is underdevelopment an internally (domestically) or externally (internationally) induced phenomenon?

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Critical Questions II

• What constraints most hold back accelerated growth?

• What are the causes of extreme poverty, and• What policies have been most effective for

improving:

• The lives of the poorest of the poor?

• The least effective in this regard?

• Is rapid population growth

• Threatening the economic progress of developing nations? Or

• Is it stimulating growth through providing a “demographic dividend”

• Why is there so much unemployment and underemployment in the developing world

• especially in the cities, and

• why do people continue to migrate to the cities from rural areas even when their chances of finding a conventional job are very slim?

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Critical Questions III• Do educational systems in developing countries

really promote economic development? If not, how might they be improved

• As more than half the people in developing countries still reside in rural areas:

• how can agriculture and rural development best be promoted?

• Bottom up rural development?

• Top down governmental infrastructure programs?

• Encouragement of foreign agro-businesses?

• Higher agricultural prices together with adequate credit programs?

• What is meant by “environmentally sustainable development”? Are there serious costs of pursuing sustainable development as opposed to simple output growth?

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Critical Questions IV

• Are free markets and economic privatization the answer to development problems, or do governments in developing countries still have major roles to play in their economies?

• Is expanded international trade desirable from the point of view of the development of poor nations?

• Who gains from trade, and how are the advantages distributed among nations?

• What has been the impact of International Monetary Fund (IMF) “stabilization programs” and

• World Bank “structural adjustment” lending on the balance of payments and growth prospects of heavily indebted less developed countries?

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Critical Questions V

• What is the impact of foreign economic aid from rich countries?

• Should developing countries continue to seek such aid?

• If so under what conditions and for what purposes?

• Should developed countries continue to offer such aid, and if so, under what conditions and for what purposes?

• For the emerging African economies, are there any clear combinations of factors that seem to assure economic success for countries on the verge of rapid growth?

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Africa Weighted by GDP

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Africa Weighted by Population

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Africa Population Density

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US/China Trade with Africa

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Africa Progress Toward MDGs

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Africa Sectoral Composition

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Private Capital Flows to Africa

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Composition of Private Capital Flows

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